Dissertation Title: Temporal Relations in Discourse: A model for the optimal interpretation

Linguistic Field(s):
Semantics

Dissertation Director:
Leyla Uzun

Dissertation Abstract:

The aim of this dissertation is to propose a model for the optimal interpretation of temporal structure in discourse. In the model which is based on the basic principles and methods of Optimality Theory, a set of constraints which play a role on the interpretation of temporal structure in discourse are proposed and the interactions between these constraints are presented. The model which is developed on the basis of Turkish data includes three basic constraints which determine the temporal structure in discourse: Temporal Faithfulness Constraint, Time Constraint and Contingency Constraint which is a component of Avoid Temporal Contradiction Constraint. Temporal Faithfulness Constraint and Time Constraint are described as Faithfulness Constraints which take the compositional meanings of the sentences in a discourse into account. In certain cases where these Faithfulness Constraints are violated, Contingency and Avoid Temporal Contradiction Constraints come into effect for the optimal interpretation. It is observed that no temporal relation is inferred in cases where Temporal Faithfulness Constraint, Time Constraint and Contingency Constraints are violated. Within the framework of the model which is developed on the basis of the principle that takes the interpretation of the temporal structure in discourse as an optimization process, it is concluded that Temporal Faithfulness Constraint is satisfied in narrative discourses.

The dissertation includes the following chapters: First chapter evaluates the approaches to the interpretation of temporal structure in discourse and they are criticized for not giving a complete explanatory account of temporal structure in discourse. In this chapter the basic principles and tools of Optimality Theory are introduced and it is concluded that Optimality Theory provides a complete theoretical framework for a unified explanation of temporal structure in discourse at semantic, syntactic and pragmatic levels. In second chapter, a model which is called 'Temporal Optimization Model' is developed for the most optimal interpretation of the temporal structure in discourse and a set of constraints which play a role on the interpretation of this structure are presented. In this chapter how atemporal relations occur and what kind of rhetorical relations such atemporal relations show are also discussed. Third chapter concentrates on temporal simultaneity relations and introduces Interval Constraints which determine the temporal parallelism and inclusion relations. Fourth chapter focuses on temporal anteriority and posteriority relations and introduces Parallelism Constraint which takes the hierarchical structure of discourse into account from a Bi-directional Optimality perspective. The last chapter evaluates and overviews the findings of the study.